I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 167
To amend the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 to
authorize partnerships between States and nongovernmental entities for
the purpose of reclaiming and restoring land and water resources ad-
versely affected by coal mining activities before August 3, 1977, and
for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY3, 2025
Mr. L
AHOODintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Natural Resources
A BILL
To amend the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act
of 1977 to authorize partnerships between States and
nongovernmental entities for the purpose of reclaiming
and restoring land and water resources adversely affected
by coal mining activities before August 3, 1977, and
for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Community Reclama-4
tion Partnerships Act of 2025’’. 5
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SEC. 2. REFERENCE. 1
Except as otherwise specifically provided, whenever in 2
this Act an amendment is expressed in terms of an amend-3
ment to a provision, the reference shall be considered to 4
be made to a provision of the Surface Mining Control and 5
Reclamation Act of 1977 (30 U.S.C. 1201 et seq.). 6
SEC. 3. STATE MEMORANDA OF UNDERSTANDING FOR CER-7
TAIN REMEDIATION. 8
Section 405 (30 U.S.C. 1235) is amended by insert-9
ing after subsection (l) the following: 10
‘‘(m) S
TATEMEMORANDA OF UNDERSTANDING FOR 11
R
EMEDIATION OFMINEDRAINAGE.— 12
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—A State with a State pro-13
gram approved under subsection (d) may enter into 14
a memorandum of understanding with relevant Fed-15
eral or State agencies (or both) to remediate mine 16
drainage on abandoned mine land and water im-17
pacted by abandoned mines within the State. The 18
memorandum may be updated as necessary and re-19
submitted for approval under this subsection. 20
‘‘(2) M
EMORANDA REQUIREMENTS .—Such 21
memorandum shall establish a strategy satisfactory 22
to the State and Federal agencies that are parties 23
to the memorandum, to address water pollution re-24
sulting from mine drainage at sites eligible for rec-25
lamation and mine drainage abatement expenditures 26
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under section 404, including specific procedures 1
for— 2
‘‘(A) ensuring that activities carried out to 3
address mine drainage will result in improved 4
water quality; 5
‘‘(B) monitoring, sampling, and the report-6
ing of collected information as necessary to 7
achieve the condition required under subpara-8
graph (A); 9
‘‘(C) operation and maintenance of treat-10
ment systems as necessary to achieve the condi-11
tion required under subparagraph (A); and 12
‘‘(D) other purposes, as considered nec-13
essary by the State or Federal agencies, to 14
achieve the condition required under subpara-15
graph (A). 16
‘‘(3) P
UBLIC REVIEW AND COMMENT .— 17
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Before submitting a 18
memorandum to the Secretary and the Admin-19
istrator for approval, a State shall— 20
‘‘(i) invite interested members of the 21
public to comment on the memorandum; 22
and 23
‘‘(ii) hold at least one public meeting 24
concerning the memorandum in a location 25
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or locations reasonably accessible to per-1
sons who may be affected by implementa-2
tion of the memorandum. 3
‘‘(B) N
OTICE OF MEETING .—The State 4
shall publish notice of each meeting not less 5
than 15 days before the date of the meeting, in 6
local newspapers of general circulation, on the 7
Internet, and by any other means considered 8
necessary or desirable by the Secretary and the 9
Administrator. 10
‘‘(C) R
ESPONSE TO PUBLIC COMMENT .— 11
The memorandum shall include responses to 12
substantive concerns raised by the public in 13
comments and during public meetings if re-14
ceived within 30 days of such meetings and op-15
portunity to comment. 16
‘‘(4) S
UBMISSION AND APPROVAL .—The State 17
shall submit the memorandum to the Secretary and 18
the Administrator of the Environmental Protection 19
Agency for approval. The Secretary and the Admin-20
istrator shall approve or disapprove the memo-21
randum within 120 days after the date of its sub-22
mission if the Secretary and Administrator find that 23
the memorandum will facilitate additional activities 24
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under the State Reclamation Plan under subsection 1
(e) that improve water quality. 2
‘‘(5) T
REATMENT AS PART OF STATE PLAN .— 3
A memorandum of a State that is approved by the 4
Secretary and the Administrator under this sub-5
section shall be considered part of the approved 6
abandoned mine reclamation plan of the State. 7
‘‘(n) C
OMMUNITYRECLAIMERPARTNERSHIPS.— 8
‘‘(1) P
ROJECT APPROVAL .—Within 120 days 9
after receiving such a submission, the Secretary 10
shall approve a Community Reclaimer project to re-11
mediate abandoned mine lands if the Secretary finds 12
that— 13
‘‘(A) the proposed project will be con-14
ducted by a Community Reclaimer as defined in 15
this subsection or approved subcontractors of 16
the Community Reclaimer; 17
‘‘(B) for any proposed project that remedi-18
ates mine drainage, the proposed project is con-19
sistent with an approved State memorandum of 20
understanding under subsection (m); 21
‘‘(C) the proposed project will be con-22
ducted on a site or sites inventoried under sec-23
tion 403(c); 24
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‘‘(D) the proposed project meets all sub-1
mission criteria under paragraph (2); 2
‘‘(E) the relevant State has entered into an 3
agreement with the Community Reclaimer 4
under which the State shall assume all respon-5
sibility with respect to the project for any costs 6
or damages resulting from any action or inac-7
tion on the part of the Community Reclaimer in 8
carrying out the project, except for costs or 9
damages resulting from gross negligence or in-10
tentional misconduct by the Community Re-11
claimer, on behalf of— 12
‘‘(i) the Community Reclaimer; and 13
‘‘(ii) the owner of the proposed project 14
site, if such Community Reclaimer or 15
owner, respectively, did not participate in 16
any way in the creation of site conditions 17
at the proposed project site or activities 18
that caused any lands or waters to become 19
eligible for reclamation or drainage abate-20
ment expenditures under section 404; 21
‘‘(F) the State has the necessary legal au-22
thority to conduct the project and will obtain all 23
legally required authorizations, permits, li-24
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censes, and other approvals to ensure comple-1
tion of the project; 2
‘‘(G) the State has sufficient financial re-3
sources to ensure completion of the project, in-4
cluding any necessary operation and mainte-5
nance costs (including costs associated with 6
emergency actions covered by a contingency 7
plan under paragraph (2)(K)); and 8
‘‘(H) the proposed project is not in a cat-9
egory of projects that would require a permit 10
under title V. 11
‘‘(2) P
ROJECT SUBMISSION.—The State shall 12
submit a request for approval to the Secretary that 13
shall include— 14
‘‘(A) a description of the proposed project, 15
including any engineering plans that must bear 16
the seal of a professional engineer; 17
‘‘(B) a description of the proposed project 18
site or sites, including, if relevant, the nature 19
and extent of pollution resulting from mine 20
drainage; 21
‘‘(C) identification of the past and current 22
owners and operators of the proposed project 23
site; 24
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‘‘(D) the agreement or contract between 1
the relevant State and the Community Re-2
claimer to carry out the project; 3
‘‘(E) a determination that the project will 4
facilitate the activities of the State reclamation 5
plan under subsection (e); 6
‘‘(F) sufficient information to determine 7
whether the Community Reclaimer has the 8
technical capability and expertise to successfully 9
conduct the proposed project; 10
‘‘(G) a cost estimate for the project and 11
evidence that the Community Reclaimer has 12
sufficient financial resources to ensure the suc-13
cessful completion of the proposed project (in-14
cluding any operation or maintenance costs); 15
‘‘(H) a schedule for completion of the 16
project; 17
‘‘(I) an agreement between the Community 18
Reclaimer and the current owner of the site 19
governing access to the site; 20
‘‘(J) sufficient information to ensure that 21
the Community Reclaimer meets the definition 22
under paragraph (3); 23
‘‘(K) a contingency plan designed to be 24
used in response to unplanned adverse events 25
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that includes emergency actions, response, and 1
notifications; 2
‘‘(L) detailed plans for any proposed recy-3
cling or reprocessing of historic mine residue to 4
be conducted by the Community Reclaimer (in-5
cluding a description of how all proposed recy-6
cling or reprocessing activities contribute to the 7
remediation of the abandoned mine site); and 8
‘‘(M) a requirement that the State provide 9
notice to adjacent and downstream landowners 10
and the public and hold a public meeting near 11
the proposed project site before the project is 12
initiated. 13
‘‘(3) R
EPROCESSING OF MATERIALS .—A Com-14
munity Reclaimer may reprocess materials recovered 15
during the implementation of a remediation plan 16
only if— 17
‘‘(A) the applicable land management 18
agency has signed a decision document approv-19
ing reprocessing as part of the approved aban-20
doned mine reclamation plan of the State; 21
‘‘(B) the proceeds from the sale or use of 22
the materials are used— 23
‘‘(i) to defray the costs of the remedi-24
ation; and 25
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‘‘(ii) to reimburse the Administrator 1
or the head of a Federal land management 2
agency for the purpose of carrying out this 3
Act; and 4
‘‘(C) the materials only include historic 5
mine residue. 6
‘‘(4) C
OMMUNITY RECLAIMER DEFINED .—For 7
purposes of this section, the term ‘Community Re-8
claimer’ means any person who— 9
‘‘(A) seeks to voluntarily assist a State 10
with a reclamation project under this section, 11
which may include companies that currently 12
hold reclamation liability elsewhere from the 13
proposed site or active mine sites that require 14
a performance bond; 15
‘‘(B) did not participate in any way in the 16
creation of site conditions at the proposed 17
project site or activities that caused any lands 18
or waters at the proposed project site to become 19
eligible for reclamation or drainage abatement 20
expenditures under section 404; and 21
‘‘(C) is not subject to outstanding viola-22
tions listed pursuant to section 510(c).’’. 23
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SEC. 4. CLARIFYING STATE LIABILITY FOR MINE DRAINAGE 1
PROJECTS. 2
Section 413(d) (30 U.S.C. 1242(d)) is amended by 3
inserting ‘‘unless such control or treatment will be con-4
ducted in accordance with a State memorandum of under-5
standing approved under section 405(m) of this Act’’ after 6
‘‘under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act’’. 7
SEC. 5. CONFORMING AMENDMENTS. 8
Section 405(f) (30 U.S.C. 1235(f)) is amended— 9
(1) by striking the ‘‘and’’ after the semicolon in 10
paragraph (6); 11
(2) by striking the period at the end of para-12
graph (7) and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 13
(3) by inserting at the end the following: 14
‘‘(8) a list of projects proposed under sub-15
section (n).’’. 16
SEC. 6. SUNSET PROVISION. 17
This Act shall be in effect until September 30, 2032. 18
Æ
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